There has long been a quiet anxiety at the intersection of aspiration and articulation: the moment when a person who knows exactly what they want must say the name of it out loud.
Duolingo, the language-learning application, is now offering assistance. The company has created what it calls The Phonetic Collection, a capsule fashion line in which each garment displays the phonetic spelling of a well-known luxury brand name — the sort of names that have tripped up American tongues for generations.
"There's something very human about avoiding a word because you're worried you'll say it wrong," said Manu Orssaud, the chief marketing officer of Duolingo. "Duolingo is trying to remove that pressure in a way that's entertaining, relevant, and useful."
The collection, which arrives this week alongside an outdoor advertising campaign in New York City, is timed to coincide with New York Fashion Week. (What better moment to remind people that they have been mispronouncing things at parties for years?)
A survey conducted by Duolingo with the market research firm YouGov found that 62 percent of Americans believe they can pronounce the brand Hermès correctly, while only 15 percent actually can. Members of Generation Z performed somewhat better than their elders, though fewer than three in ten got the pronunciation right.
The collection will be displayed at a pop-up at Null Object, a boutique and gallery, from September 9 through 10. In a characteristic flourish, attendees may bid their Duolingo streak — the app's measure of consecutive daily usage — for a chance to win a piece.
Duolingo has built much of its recent marketing identity around Duo, its green owl mascot, whose snarky demeanor on social media has made the brand a favorite of people who enjoy being gently harassed about their study habits. The owl will appear in at least one advertisement, on Canal Street, though the campaign otherwise lets the phonetics do the talking.
The runway video debuts on YouTube today.
Original story published in adweek.com: "Duolingo Creates a Fashion Line for the Brands You Can’t Pronounce"